Weekendshift and Chocolate Cake
by ducky72
Summary: COMPLETE! This story is about a birthday party and a special private dinner, in the course of which Abby remembers the day she met Gibbs.
1. Black Roses

_**Author´s Note:**_ This story initially was about what ended up as the last chapters of this story and was meant to be a one-chapter story. As it turned out to be a bit dark and melancholic, I decided to begin with – hopefully, though not all the time – some lighter stuff.  
Hope you enjoy it nevertheless. Please let me know.

_**Spoilers:**_ Not really – I think

_**Disclaimer:**_ I don´t own any of the serie´s characters, just borrowed them and pretend to return them after this vacation. They might however encounter one or two unpleasant situations. Lisa, who you will briefly get to know in the first chapter, exists because of my imagination.

_**Rating:**_ K+

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** Chapter 1 – Black Roses**

It was her birthday. Or, actually, it had been her birthday yesterday. The aftereffects, however, could still be seen everywhere. And felt! Her apartment was in a mess and so was she.

As it had been her 30th birthday, she had seen no possibility to escape and behave as if it had simply been another ordinary day or, at best, a birthday like all her others. She had considered going out to dinner with Gibbs, something they had been doing for many years now, something they enjoyed so much.

But, as mentioned before, it had been Abby´s 30th birthday and she had felt obliged to throw a party for all her friends and colleagues. It had happened to be a saturday as well, so there is no need to tell that it had been a big celebration, making her small apartment crammed with people as if she had been holding a flea market. If now someone would ask her how many guests there had been, which so far was a mystery to her as well, she would just have to answer: "Gimme a minute to count the roses... ."

The roses -- each time a new guest had arrived, Abby had been beaming with joy to find another black rose being given to her. Yeah, indeed, every single guest had brought – aside from lots of other presents - one single black rose. Yes, everyone!

Even Gibbs.

"Wow, Gibbs!" Abby had greeted him.

"I usually don´t give away dead flowers," he had said as he had presented her the black rose. "Consider it an exception to the rule."

Abby had tilted her head to the left and had asked: "Which one?"

He had grinned mischievously and had kissed her on the forehead. "Happy birthday, Abs."

There had been a card tugged to the rose and when Abby had read it, she had thrown her arms around his neck and had hugged him wildly. Sure, what else would one expect her to do, when being invited to a private dinner at her silver-haired fox´s home. "Invitation to dinner – tomorrow at 7.30p.m. – my place," the card had read. She had already worried about having disappointed Gibbs when she had told him, they would have to postpone their annual birthday-dinner. Well, she obviously had been wrong here. So much for Gibbs being grumpy, aloof, inapproachable and god knows what else people thought him to be. They just didn´t know him as well as Abby did.

To be honest, Abby had not really expected Gibbs to show up. He hated crowds, first of all, crowded rooms. She nevertheless had politely invited him in, but she hadn´t in the least been astonished about his rejection. He had cautiously peeked over her shoulder and had shaken his head.

"Uh, thanks, Abs. You know, I got work to do."

"Like what?" she had challenged him.

"See, I happen to have a guest for dinner tomorrow... ." Gibbs squirmingly had answered.

"Oh! Wait, I´ll get you a coffee at least, and some chicken." That said, Abby had left him in the doorway, heading for the kitchen.

Gibbs had glanced inside Abby´s apartment and he hadn´t been able to suppress a smile when he had seen McGee forcing his way through the crowd, drops of sweat glistening on his forehead. Poor Tim. Most likely, Ziva and Tony are having fun talking and dancing, and McGee has to fetch drinks and food for them,´ Gibbs had thought. Then he had seen Abby again, not only having a mug of steaming coffee in her hand but also a pretty young woman in tow. He had recognized her immediately.

"Look, who´s here" Abby had announced, beaming with delight.

"Hi Jethro," the woman had greeted, handing him a plate with cold chicken on it. Then, both hands being available now, she had started to sign. _Still perfect at signing, Jethro?_

Gibbs had passed the plate on to Abby. _Hi Lisa, Sweden still making you happy? Tell me, how´s your family?_

"Okay, guys. I guess you don´t need me here anymore." Abby had put down the plate and the mug on the staircase and had turned to take care of her other guests.

She wasn´t quite sure when she had seen Lisa the next time, only that it had been way after midnight.

"Ab-by-y," Lisa had grinned, "I think you´ll have to buy new coffee."

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It had been late last night, or one would better say early this morning when Abby had finally said good-bye to her last guest. Her eyes already closed, she had shuffeld across to her bedroom, had unlocked the door and had fallen asleep the instant her head had touched the pillow.

About an hour later, or two at most – Abby had just turned around in her bed´ and now was just about to wrap the blanket round herself – her phone started ringing. She tried to ignore it first, but it wouldn´t stop. Instead, her cell phone went off as well. Reluctantly she grabbed her cell and answered it.

"Abby, I need you at the lab!" Gibbs was sorry about calling Abby in so early, but the only sign indicating that was that he was not barking his order.

"Oh, Gibbs! It´s sunday and I just went to bed" Abby mumbled, still half asleep.

"Bed? Well, get out of that thing you call bed´ instantly!" Gibbs resolutely ordered.

"Uuuuuh! What...?" She didn´t have any chance to get on. The next thing Abby was doing was staring at her cell and sigh. Gibbs had ended the call.

"Good-bye sleep, good-bye sunday!" Abby groaned as she climbed out of the coffin.

Abby was used to not sleeping very much and it would not have been that bad, if she had still been awake. But now, as she had just experienced the comfort of her warm and soft blanket and the soft pillow beneath her head, it was horrible. It wasn´t easy for her to get up. Her worst nightmare was becomming true:

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed as she was absolutely convinced: "I´m old now!"

Abby shuffeled over to her bathroom, took a shower, got dressed and, feeling slightly better now, she slowly became aware of the condition her apartment was in.

Her apartment was full of black roses. That was definitely the most enchanting effect of her party. Unfortunately, it was the only effect deserving a description near nice´. Everything else was a disaster. Piles of dirty dishes were waiting to be cleaned and leftovers could be found practically everywhere.

"It will take years to tidy that up," Abby thought aloud. Yet, she sighed with relief. With great foresight she had locked the door to her sleeping-room yesterday. God knows where she would otherwise have found what kind of leftover this morning... .

A slight hangover made itself felt and Abby decided to take a taxi to get to work. That at least gave her the chance to catch a few additional minutes of sleep.


	2. It´s Sunday, after all

_**Author´s Note:** I´m glad you like this story. It is nearly completed – in my head and on my pad, my fingers, however, don´t work on the keyboard as fast as my thoughts do (which unfortunately have already come up with ideas for two new stories)._

_All in all this story is seven or eight chapters long. I´m not yet sure wether to devide the longer chapter 6 into two. What would you prefer?_

_I consider posting one chapter each sunday, this will go with the story, because it all takes place on a sunday and as the title of the second chapter says: It´s sunday, after all._

_Special thanks to my friend sammy for being patient and listen to the freehandedly and therefore sometimes clumsy german version. Hope you are up to reading this version one day, sweetie._

**_And now: here´s the next chapter, in which our team tries to concentrate on their work ... on sunday._**

_**Enjoy. Please R&R**_

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**Chapter 2 – It´s Sunday, after all**

When she arrived at NCIS headquarters, Abby went straight to the office to catch up with what had happened.

Ziva was working, typing away at her computer, while Tony was fast asleep at his desk, arms folded underneath his head.

"Where´s Gibbs?" Abby asked.

Ziva shrugged. "He just went out. Babbled something about caffein. Would be his fourth coffee this morning, by the way. And it´s not even eight o´clock."

"Really?" Abby let out an audible breath as she thought about Gibbs having had several coffees last night in front of her apartment.

"He´s badly off, huh?" Abby asked, pointing at Tony.

Ziva grinned. "Yeah, our little Tony drowned like a fish."

"Drank like a fish, Ziva." Gibbs rushed past them, paused for the slightest moment before taking one step back, then turned and held out the container of Caf-Pow he had brought with him to Abby. "Thought you might need this," he said, then silently walked over to Tony´s desk, bent down and whispered "Tony?"

"Mm hmm… boss?" Tony mumbled without opening his eyes.

"Since when are you able to investigate in your sleep?"

"Ummm…not sleeping, boss." Tony murmured.

This of course earned Tony a slap on the back of his head making him jerk fully awake and straighten up like a schoolboy who had been caught being unattentive.

"Tony, you got the list?" Gibbs impatiently wanted to know, throwing a scowling glance at Tony.

"Yeah, boss, I got it…somewhere… ." Tony started rummaging about the papers on his desk.

Gibbs grinned and walked over to his own desk.

"Abby, there´s a car waiting for you down in the garage. The husband of a Navy Lieutenant went down a slope early this morning with his car, which left him severely injured. No skid marks. McGee should already be down in the garage.

Abby left to join McGee.

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It didn´t take them long to find the obvious cause of the accident. The brake tube was damaged. It was only too clear that it had been cut.

According to Lieutenant Anna Michaels, the injured man´s spouse, she had had the car repaired two days before, supposedly because the brakes weren´t functioning properly. Was it simply sloppiness they were dealing with? Or, which was more likely, had someone intentionally manipulated the brake?

It took Abby and McGee much longer to reach someone working at the service station, where the car had been two days ago, than to find the cause of the brake failure.

It was sunday, after all.

They learnt that Mrs. Michaels had complained that the brake of the car wasn´t working well and she had suggested, it should be looked over and maybe, as - according to her - had her husband considered, the brake tube be replaced. The mechanic told Abby and McGee that after finding no hints for a weak brake he had adjusted it, then had thoroughly cleaned the engine compartment in case he might have missed something and had told Mrs. Michaels to come back again should something still be wrong.

"It was her!" Abby was absolutely convinced about that when she and McGee filled Gibbs in on their latest knowledge. She bent over the engine compartment, black light in hand.

Gibbs´ gut as well told him that that might be true. "Yeah, looks like. She behaved too calm, when we saw her this morning. Uninterested, unconcerned, simply not the way you would expect someone to behave who just has learned that a next of kin is struggling with death. But presumptions are not enough. I need to be sure. Prove it, Abs."

"And here we go," Abby announced. She waved Gibbs and McGee over and showed them a tiny spot on a wire, just beneath the cut at the brake tube. "Blood!" Only Abby was capable of presenting that word in such a spectecular and victorious way.

"Tim, gimme a swab, please." Abby wiped away at the blood on the wire and held up the cotton-wool tip triumphicantly.

"How long?" Gibbs impatiently wanted to know.

"Three hours," Abby matter-of-factly replied, biting her lip. She knew, her boss didn´t like the word hour´, let alone _hour__**s**__´_ but she couldn´t help. It wasn´t up to her. Gibbs in return knew, when Abby bit her lip and looked at him like that, there was more to come.

"But?" he uttered.

"But … that´s only the caculated time for extracting the DNA and performing the PCR. I have to perform several other steps afterwards as well, of which I´m sure you don´t want to know in detail now … or anytime else ..., then submit the DNA-pattern to the database and wait for an alignment. In the afternoon," Abby eventually revealed the object of his desire. And if they were lucky, they would even get a hit. Gibbs gave her a doubtful look. "Gibbs, I can´t short-cut this!" Abby tried to defended herself.

"Then what are you waiting for?" he impatiently waved her away, indicating her to go and get started immediately.

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It was early in the afternoon and Abby had finally reached the most boring part of her job: Waiting! She had performed a genetic fingerprint PCR out of the blood, had prepared some other tests she was to run on monday and had submitted the DNA-pattern to the database for identification. She was confident that it would not last very long until she would get the result, as the database was most likely not made use of very much on weekends.

Unfortunately, it was long enough to make her doze off, despite of the loud music that was filling the lab.

Gibbs entered the lab, turned off the music and upon seeing Abby fast asleep, her arms put underneath her head on the table, he couldn´t help smiling. He sneaked up on her and bent down.

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite…," he hummed.

Abby was so starteled by that unexpected voice whispering in her ear, that she jumped to her feet, turned around and looked into Gibbs´ not less frightened and astonished eyes. He hadn´t expected her to be that easily frightened. Normally she sensed his presence and therefore was only slightly jerking when he teased her. This time, however, she had thrown her arms through the air when she had jumped and turned and he had only just been able to take a step back. Otherwise they would both have come into closer contact with a mixture of fresh hot coffee and Caf-Pow that Gibbs had just been about to deliver.

They both stood rooted to the spot, their gazes locked. Abby frowned. Her eyes were narrowed, her lips pursed, her left hand planted on her hip and her right index finger was raised threateningly. So, with his eyes wide open Gibbs stared into Abby´s never-do-that-again-or-I-will-kill-you-without-leaving-any-traces-face.

"Gibbs!" Abby accusingly uttered, her face finally relaxing a bit. She slapped his upper arm and grabbed the Caf-Pow. Then Abby slumped into her chair, took a big gulp of her caffein-drink and lifted her head to look at him with sad eyes.

"I´m old, Gibbs," she lamented.

"Old? Then what the hell am I?" Gibbs laughed and looked at her questioningly.

"Ummm … better not tell you that!" Abby replied, being a bit embarrassed. Then she went on: "When I was fifteen, we used to call people being 30 or so ... well …"

"Yeah, I know. You told me, remember?" Gibbs chuckled.

Abby bit her lip. She clearly did remember telling him. He at that time had just stared at her, before grinning: "You´ll have the pleasure of being that age one day as well. Let´s then talk about that again!"

A high bleeping sound went off, dragging them out of their train of thoughts. They both turned towards the computer-monitor and a green signal indicated a positive DNA-match, providing the ID of its owner as well.

"Abs, does that mean what I think it does mean?" Gibbs pointed at the monitor.

"Yes, Gibbs," Abby confirmed, "to a 100 percent."

"DiNozzo and McGee are out, working Tony´s list. Call Ziva, fill her in on … _this_ and tell her I´ll meet her outside!" Gibbs ordered, already being on his way and outside the lab when he had finished the sentence.

"But..." Abby called after him, but he was long out of earshot. Open mouthed she watched the door slide shut, a puzzled look settling on her face. The phone rang. Absent-minded she pressed the speaker-button and let out a monosyllabic and slightly confused "Lab?"

"Well done, Abs! Go home. See you at seven-thirty. Hope you are hungry!"

"Sure, hope you are," she answered, although it was only too obvious that the caller had already hung up. Abby smiled her best satisfied smile, called Ziva and suddenly she was in a tearing hurry... .

_To be continued..._


	3. Dinner

_**Author´s Note**__: I´m glad you like this story so far. Please keep letting me know._

_We will skip the afternoon and first have a look into Gibbs´ pots... ._

_Um, do I need to write a disclaimer for recipes as well? Well, not mine!_

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**Chapter 3 - ****Dinner**

It was 19.20h.

Gibbs was standing in his kitchen, exhausted but much pleased with what he had managed to cook for dinner. Chinese. Freshly prepared. No take-away. Really, there was nothing better than cooking dinner by oneself.

But there were times and places that you simply could not cook by yourself.

At work, for eample. Everyone on the team loved chinese food and they often had chinese take-away at NCIS headquarters. Despite the disadvantages every take-away had and especially chinese food had: Packed in cardboard-boxes, carried about for half an hour, if you were lucky that was, it was almost always only just slightly warm or worse than that it had become really sticky when one finally could eat it.

Compared to what was now filling the air with a delicious smell ... the pure image made Gibbs shudder ... and he immediately regretted it. He squeezed his eyes shut and – leaning forward, his hands resting on the sink – he waited for the pain and the dizziness to subside.

Well, Abby would in any case enjoy this meal. She was crazy about chinese food, but the only chinese food she had ever touched at work were tofu-wraps. "No such cardboard-box muck for me!" she used to say.

So tonight Abby would get a well spiced, fresh and hot chinese dinner.

Preparing this meal had been a bit difficult regarding what his afternoon had been like, but Gibbs would never disappoint Abby and cancel their dinner, although Ducky had suggested he should go home and lie down immediately and if possible not get out of bed for the next two days, or, knowing how impatient Gibbs was, one day at least. And dare him, would he show up at work before thursday! Blah! His condition wasn´t _that_ bad after all. So he had done the best he could and within record-time had managed to prepare this meal.

They would have banana-soup first. He had almost forgotten about the coconut-milk and had only recognized it when he had been on his way to Abby the previous evening. So he had taken a detour before showing up at Abby´s party yesterday.

Main dish – duck breast and chicken breast were already in the oven, rice and "ten precious vegetables" - black mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, water-chestnuts, carrots, fermented bean curd, garlic, rib celery and red bell pepper - were already sliced and would be stir-fried after they had eaten the soup. Okay, he was cheating. One "precious vegetable" was missing. He would serve it seperately: fried tofu, marinated with soy sauce and ginger. Tofu – he would never understand how someone could eat that! It had no taste of it´s own and – worst of all – it _squeaked_ when chewing on it. Ugh, he could have shuddered to the mere thought of it but just in time he remembered the aftereffects this action had had some minutes ago. No, he´d definitely better not think of his first and hopefully last personal encounter with foodstuffs like this.

There were riceballs and bananas for dessert, both waiting in the fridge to be fried just before they would be served.

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At 19.30 sharp there was a knock on the front door which was always open and therefore, everybody who knew just came in. His visitor of course knew and the next moment his name was called out and footsteps were heard in the hallway. Gibbs braced himself for what was about to come up. He took a deep breath, smiled, went out of the kitchen and an instant later found himself hugged by an always vehement Abby.

Gibbs winced. He was only just able to suppress an _Ouch´_ but he wasn´t able to avoid a low grunt. Abby immediately stopped her embracing ceremony and took one step back, her hands however still resting upon Gibbs´ upper arms.

"Gibbs!" Abby cried out as she saw the swelling and the stiched wound above his right brow.

"I´m okay, Abs." he tried to reassure her.

"Oh, Gibbs! What happened?" Abby worriedly asked.

Yes, that was exactly how he had expected her to react: Abby was about to get worried. Gibbs tried to gently remove her hand from his left arm. But before he could do so, Abby was for a moment able to intensify her grip when she moved closer to eye the wound on his forehead.

"_Ow!_ … A-b-b-y … please!" Gibbs groaned, his face grimaced with pain.

Abby did immediately let go and gasped. If Gibbs said please´ it had to be bad.

He didn´t want to make her worry about him so he took her hand in his right and pulled her into the kitchen.

"Nothing to worry about," he tried to calm her, "just a bad bruising."

"But Gibbs, what…?" Abby asked.

"I´ll tell you … later. What´s that?" he motioned to the box in the bag that was dangling from her wrist, the box that he had already painfully become aware of when she had hugged him, the edges of the box digging into his left arm.

Abby tilted her head to the right and smiled. "I´ll show you … later."

He didn´t need to ask and she didn´t need to answer, because he knew and she knew that he knew what was in the box. It simply was a question-and-answer sort of game, a ritual that they used to begin their birthday-dinner with for quite some years now.

They had a very special relationship and nobody had ever found out what made it so special. Some people would say, Abby and Gibbs behaved like father and daughter or like little sister and big brother and maybe they weren´t that wrong. The both of them cared for each other a lot. He protected her whenever necessary and/or possible and she would ask for his help whenever she needed an answer or just needed to talk. But they weren´t relatives in any way. Others claimed they were in love with each other or at least had been somewhen. No, they never had been. And they weren´t either. Their relationship was pure friendship, that kind of frienship that many people and - Tony in first place - were of the opinion didn´t exist: A man and a woman being best friends, and only best friends, no love interest included.

Abby was magically drawn to the stove by the delicious smell and there was no way Gibbs could hold her back from sneaking through all the pots and bowls, one of which she looked at very very thoroughly.

"Don´t tell me, that´s tofu!?" she finally said.

"If you promise not to throw your arms around me again…," he cautiously replied.

Abby sticked out her tongue, licked the tip of her right hand´s thumb, index and middle finger, held them up and grinned. "I swear!"

"Yes, it is," Gibbs confirmed.

Abby jumped and clapped her hands, her ponytails flying through the air. She had to remind herself of the promise she had given just a few seconds before.

"Abby, would you...," Gibbs ordered, pointing in the direction of the living-room.

Abby narrowed her eyes, her face finally expressing that very special scrutinizing look only she was able to display. She eventually shifted on her feet and with a firm nod of her head said in a deep voice: "Ey, ey sir ... boss ... Gibbs!" swirled around and leaving the kitchen she giggled "my silver-haired fox!"

Gibbs smirked and some minutes later started serving the food.

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They enjoyed the meal, talking about this and that first. Abby told Gibbs _what_ he had missed at her party, and he in return countered that he had been kept in best company. He really had enjoyed seeing Lisa again, who he knew for as long as he knew Abby.

During main course Abby couldn´t resist to tease Gibbs by asking him if he _really_ didn´t want any tofu.

"Abby, that´s not funny!" he looked at her warningly.

Sure, Abby knew he did not like tofu. Not at all. After all, it had been her, who once had managed to persuade him to taste it. _He then had taken one piece, suspiciously biting once ... twi ... no, not really twice - he had rolled his eyes and then ... no, he had not gulped it down. "It´s still alive!" had been his horror-stricken comment upon the odd chewing noises_.

"No?" Abby asked once more and grinned. She wondered anyway why he had bothered to serve it. Well, that was his Gibbs-manner. He would do anything for her.

"Nope," was his prompt answer and he started to shake his head but stopped immediately, gritted his teeth and slightly made a face, hoping Abby would not have noticed anything.

But she had, of course and watched him closely, concern settling on her face.

"Tell me!" Abby demanded. "Now!"

So after shortly summerizing the day´s case, Abby finally learnt about what had happened to Gibbs that afternoon... .

_To be continued..._


	4. Lieutenant Anna MIchaels

_**Author´s Note:** The story is getting more serious now. You will read about what happenend in the afternoon and how Gibbs got hurt._

_**Just in case**: Some mild language_

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**Chapter 4 – Lieutenant Anna Michaels**

And that´s what happened:

In the first light of dawn Frank Michaels, a young Marine´s husband went down a slope with his car, leaving him badly injured. According to Mrs. Anna Michaels, the wife, he had taken tranquilizers regularly and he had done so that night, shortly before he had decided to go out and have a drink. Tests confirmed that the man had not only taken tranquilizers but also must have had one or two drinks as well before leaving the house.

When Gibbs and his team informed Mrs. Michaels about the accident she wasn´t particularly upset. She didn´t seem to care about it much, looked tired and didn´t want to go and be with her husband at the hospital.

Gibbs ungently woke Abby while the car was prepared to be taken to NCIS headquarters where Abby and McGee examined it. The blood they found beneath the manipulated brake tube turned out to be Lieutenant Anna Michaels´ blood.

Tony and McGee were out to question those who Tony had found out Mr. Michaels was in debt to. They also were to check on Mr. Michaels´ condition at the hospital and if possible, meaning if he had regained conciousness, question him as well.

This left Ziva and Gibbs to question Lieutenant Anna Michaels again.

When they reached the house, they heard loud noise from within. Not knowing what was going on inside, they cautiously entered the house. The shelfs in the hall were empty and things were scattered all over the floor. Near the entrance there were standing two suitcases implying Mrs. Michaels was about to leave the house.

Gibbs and Ziva followed the noise that was appearently comming from the living-room. It was terrible noise, caused by objects being thrown about and shattering glass. And during all that time a woman was shouting. No, not shouting, she was screaming.

_"You damn bastard, why are you still alive? Why couldn´t you just have died?"_ A deafening shrieking and more noise of crashing furniture followed.

Gibbs called Lieutenant Michaels name and shouted that they would come in. He took a peak around the corner into the living-room, seeing a devastated room and a rampaging Anna Michaels in the midst of it. Boy, his guts once more hadn´t betrayed him. Something was very wrong. He motioned to Ziva to wait a moment before following him.

Gibbs once more called out Lieutenant Michaels name and stepped into the doorway ...

... and immediately regretted having taken the wrong moment. He was sure she had heard him, but had not expected this reaction. She must have taken some heavier object and thrown it in his direction. It did not hit him. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned away his face as something next to his head exploded. He raised his right arm and ducked upon the impact, taking a step aside at the same time and since bad luck seemed to have gotten its hand on him he misfortunately stumbled over something and lost his balance. Left side first he fell and crashed into a wooden wall unit.

All this happened in practically no time, so when Ziva reached him, it was already too late to prevent Gibbs from falling. He groaned upon the throbbing pain in his head and side but he gave Ziva a sign that he was okay, so Ziva turned her attention to the person causing all this chaos.

While Ziva managed to overpower Anna Michaels who was fighting and writhing under Ziva´s grip, Gibbs got on his feet, swaying slightly, his head spinning. A cutting pain made him raise his arm and let his fingertips touch his forehead. He gasped at the touch and when he looked at his fingers there were blood and glittering glass shards. Opposite him on the other side of the door frame he saw a destroyed glass cabinet. Obviously the object, that had missed him when he had entered the room, had hit and shattered the glass cabinet, sending pieces of boken glass in all directions. One bigger fragment had cut his forehead and later on Ducky would remove quite a number of small shards from this wound before dressing it.

It was then that his cell went off and Tony informed him that he and McGee were at the hospital where Mr. Michaels had died because of his massive injuries some minutes ago.

When Anna Michaels heard about her husband´s death, she collapsed and finally she confessed. She was relieved to at last being given the possibility to tell someone about her sufferings that had lead to her current situation.

She had tried to kill her husband, and when he hadn´t died in the accident, she feared to see him again, because she knew things would get worse, so she decided to run and hide somewhere not knowing how, but only being sure she had to. For more than one year she had on many occasions given him tranquilizers and sleeping pills that had been prescribed to her and tonight while he had taken a shower she had cut the brake tube of his car. No, she hadn´t noticed that new scratch´ on her finger, there were too many of them from working in the garden the day before.

She was a desperate woman. Her husband had become an alcoholic years ago when he had lost his job. He hadn´t bothered finding a new one, got instead used to sleeping all day and going out at nights or work on his computer´ as he called it. He had humiliated her, had called her names – not only at home but in front of others, in front of friends as well.

He had treated her like a slave, was being rude. He never had slapped her, though. At least, not in the proper meaning of the word. Maybe, if he had done so, maybe she would have been able to just leave. Maybe.

He had forced her to the most disgusting sexual practices one could ever have on their mind and whenever she refused to play along´ he had simply raped her.

So, why hadn´t she just left him?

She didn´t know. Maybe she was too much intimidated by his threats of killing himself if she didn´t do what he wanted her to. That not being enough he always emphazised he would make sure she would then be held responsible for his suicide. The way he put pressure on her had within a few years become the perfection of blackmailing someone on a psychological basis.

In addition to that she had become incapable of acting because she had nothing left for that once so kind, gentle and loving man ... yes, there had been times that they had really loved each other, respected one another ... otherwise they would not have become wife and husband at some point ... and she had thought about it for more than a year now ... she had really nothing left for him but pity.

And this compassion left her helpless to act for the sake of her own salvation.

At some point she had decided to try and calm his increasing aggressive nature. He had complained about little aches and pains on many occasions, but he had never gone and seen a doctor. So she had gone to see hers, had told him she was restless and had problems falling asleep. She in fact had problems getting asleep but that was due to her husband who wouldn´t let her when she wanted or needed to.

She then had told her husband about the prescription, being fully aware of his reaction in advance.

"Great," he had said. "I´ll take these pills, too. So maybe I won´t get too upset each time you ... ."

She hadn´t really listened to what he was going to make her believe she was guilty of this time. She had loads of possibilities to choose among.

Of course, she had collegues and one or two acquaintances and some of them might even have become aware of the fact that something was wrong. It however never had crossed her mind to talk with someone about her personal plight. And for them it probably had been too embarressing to address this subject.

She had prayed for help, prayed for getting through this somehow, but her strength would decrease with each abuse and her desperation would grow. So she had to deal with this on her own.

She was worn out, physically and psychically, desperately facing a hopeless future and now it was either him or her. The decision was easy to be made. _She_ wanted to live, wanted to forever get rid of that bastard that had ruined her. She wanted back her life, _some__life_, whatever the cost!

_To be continued..._


	5. headache

_**Author´s note**_: This will be the last note until the end of this story. You maybe realize why.

At the end of this chapter I envite you to accompany Abby on her journey back in time, which is also the initial idea that made me write this story. I´m sorry, but I cannot guarantee there won´t show up any tears! (I had a hard time writing it)

I kept the large chapter devided in two (Part I and Part II) and there even is a chance you might not have to wait a whole week for the second part (hint: don´t be gibbsish – just say please´ :-).

In addition to that: Comments of all kind are much appreciated.

You will meet Lisa again (chapter 6&7) and someone, we have already heard about in the series a few times. We have never met her and we don´t know much about her, so I hope, she doesn´t mind the way I display her character.

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**Chapter 5 – Headache**

"She will of course be discharged for killing her husband but she will be taken care of. She most likely will be charged with manslaughter only and provided that she gets into therapy she might somewhen be put on probation. But that´s left to the court." Gibbs closed his report.

Abby was so sorry for that woman. Thank God, never had she experienced something quite close to what Lieutenant Anna Michaels had. Well, she had been stalked once - not that long ago - and it had been awful, but she felt like it had been nothing compared to what this woman must have gone through.

"I´ll pray for her," Abby sympathatically said.

"If that bastard hadn´t already died a few hours ago, I would have made sure he would get the punishment he deserved, despite him having been the victim today," Gibbs snarled.

Gibbs felt a slight dizziness rise in the back of his head, but momentarily blamed this on the emphatic way he just had expressed his last sentence.

"What about dessert, Abs?" he eventually went on. "Fried bananas and yuan-hsiao. Like to join me in the kitchen?"

"Yu ... what?" Abby wanted to know.

"Fried rice-balls with sweet filling," Gibbs explained as if this had to be common knowledge.

"Sure!" Abby said, not giving away whether she meant she would join him or she knew what rice-balls were.

They both stood up at the same time.

"I´ll take care of the ... what´s wrong?" Abby suddenly was worried again when Gibbs reached out his hand to lean on the table, hardly being able to hide a pain-sticken expression on his face.

He blinked quite some times, fighting the urge to throw up part of the meal, then pretended: "I´m fine."

"Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed, worriedly rounding the table. "Don´t pretend!" She came to stop right in front of him. "Look at me," she ordered.

Gibbs sighed and did as asked. "I´m fine, really Abs."

"Mm hm," Abby nodded. "I can see that."

Abby now shook her head. The sudden change of direction from nodding to shaking made Gibbs dizzy and nauseaous again. He shut his eyes and tightened his grip on the table. It was useless to try to convince her and moreover he really needed to sit down again, else there was no chance he could get rid of that damn dizziness.

On doing so, he admitted: "Ducky said it is a mild concussion. He gave me some pain-killers... ."

"But you didn´t take them," Abby accusingly interrupted him. She moved to stand behind him and gently began massaging his temples.

"I had to. He forced me to."

"Then why didn´t you call and tell me? We could have cancelled... ."

"Abs, I´ll be okay," Gibbs reassured her. He pressed his fingers against his forehead and squeezed his still closed eyes shut more firmly and groaned. "Maybe I should take the pills Ducky gave me to take along."

"Now we are talking! Where?" Abby impatiently wanted to know.

"Jacket pocket," Gibbs briefly answered.

Abby went to fetch the pills and a glass of water, positioned herself next to Gibbs, cleared her throat and waited for him to look at her. Then she lifted the hand in which she held – pinned between her index finger and her thumb – two pills up in front of his mouth and ordered: "Open!"

He obeyed, Abby administered the pills and held out the glass of water.

"Drink!"

Again Gibbs did as ordered, inwardly smiling about Abby mothering him.

"That´s it!" Abby said; satisfied. "And now...," she took his hand and guided him to the couch. "You take care of yourself and I take care of ... the dessert." Abby applied some light pressure on his shoulder, making him sit down. "Lie down! Rest!"

"Yes, sir!" Gibbs grinned as he closed his eyes, relieved to find the dizziness and nausea ease off slowly.

With a sympathetic, yet contented smile Abby went to the kitchen where she first placed all the used dishes in the dishwasher so that she had room enough to prepare the dessert.

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In the fridge she found everything she needed. A bowl containing the dough and a plate with small white balls on it. She put everything on the table, then took one of the balls and lifted it. She scrutinized it sceptically, smelled at it, squeezed it between two fingers and eventually pulled it apart.

A black sticky substance came into sight. Abby dipped her finger into it. After drawing back her finger she distrustfully for many seconds eyed the black lump that now stuck to her finger before bringing it to the tip of her tongue to taste it.

It tasted sweet, pretty sweet and it was really, really sticky.

Abby shrugged. "Must be the riceballs," she concluded. And turning her attention to the riceballs on the plate and she continued: "Now, tell me, what am I to do with you? Huh?" Abby tilted her head to one side as if she were waiting for the riceballs to answer. They of course did not. Or did they?

"Oh, right. Fry!" the flat of her hand landed on her forehead.

Abby decided that it would be a good idea to fry the riceballs first and in the meantime prepare the bananas, dip them into the dough and then fry them as well. After that she took the wooden box she had brought along. She unpacked it and searched for a big knife and plates. And while tampering with the content of the box she said: "I think you will go fine with baked bananas and riceballs." And after starting the coffee-machine, she arranged the dessert on the plates.

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A few minutes later Abby balanced two plates towards the living-room, and it was quite a funny thing, that dessert.

She found Gibbs was still lying on the couch, fast asleep, his face relaxed. Abby decided that because of his condition and as it was already late she should let Gibbs sleep. But she would stay around in case he woke up and would feel sick again.

Abby went back to the kitchen and got herself a mug of coffee. Back in the living-room she sat down at the dining-table and had to grin as she looked at the odd arrangement in front of her.

Sitting back in her chair she let her gaze wander about the room and it fell upon some framed photos that were standing on the mantelpiece.

Abby slowly got up and went over to the fireplace. She looked at the photos for endless minutes. They had not always been there, only a few months now. Before, they had been very well hidden for an incredibly long time. Abby, however, knew them, had seen them once many, many years ago. Her hand reached out to cautiously take the photo in the middle off the mantelpiece. Slowly, and very carefully, she passed her fingers over its frame. She had been told about what was in the photo a long time ago, long before she had finally seen it. And she remembered _how_ she had been told about it – had been told about it in a very unusual yet most touching way.

She sighed.

And Abby´s mind wandered back in time – wandered back in time to that summer afternoon ... . Back to that very hot summer afternoon ... sixteen years ago... .

_To be continued..._


	6. How We Met  Part I

**Chapter 6 – How**** we**** met (Part I)**

_And her mind wandered back in time – wandered back in time to that summer afternoon ... . Back to that very hot summer afternoon ... sixteen years ago... ._

It was her birthday.

It had been a sunny day and she had been having a lot of fun playing at the shore of Chesapeake Bay with her best friend Lisa, picking up a lot of strange things people had left behind, musing about its histories.

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Only a few months ago – about one and a half year after Abby´s father had died, she and her mother had moved to a small village ashore Chesapeake Bay, about thirty miles south-east of Washington D.C.. Life hadn´t been easy after Mr. Sciuto´s death and Gloria – Abby´s mother – finally had accepted her sister´s suggestion to move nearby.

At school Abby had instantly become friends with her classmate Lisa, whose parents were deaf – as were Abby´s. Lisa and Abby were sitting next to each other right from the beginning. Somewhen during her first day at the new school Abby had thought it pretty boring to listen to some stuff she had already learned at her old school. So she had started to repeat her teacher´s words by signing them, whenever her teacher hadn´t been watching. Lisa, however, had watched her for a while and sometimes Lisa had giggled, which Abby hadn´t found amusing at all. Being annoyed, Abby had signed to herself _I wonder what she thinks is so funny_, and she had been pretty much embarressed when Lisa had signed _You are funny_. From that moment on, they had a lot of fun together.

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Actually, Abby would have prefered rummaging about the wreckage yard nearby today, but it was really too hot - much too hot to climb over all these burning hot car-wreckages.

So after having eaten her mother´s delicious self-made birthday-cake with chocolate-cream filling and chocolate-buttercream icing and after having litres of ice-cold milk, Lisa and Abby had decided to go down to the shore of Chesapeake Bay to search for evidences of unnoticed crimes.

But now, in the early evening, big clouds were gathering at the horizon, threatening to bring up a powerful thunderstorm. It was getting darker and darker by the minute as the clouds were getting nearer and nearer. Dark thunder was rolling in the distance.

Lisa and Abby were about to leave the beach by climbing up a few rocks towards the embankment, when Abby suddenly stopped in her movement, her gaze resting on something further down the shore.

"Abby," Lisa said, being worried about the nearing thunderstorm. "We should hurry up if we want to get home before the thunderstorm gets here."

But Abby didn´t react.

"A-b-b-y!" Lisa said once more, plucking at Abby´s shirt.

"Hmm?" Abby slowly and absent-minded replied. She hadn´t moved for quite some time now, her gaze still fixed on that spot down the shore and Lisa could now see Abby biting her lower lip, her right brow arching, seconds later her left brow following as her eyes were widening extremely.

Abby gasped.

"Oh no!" Abby exclaimed. "He can´t do that!" Immediately she started climbing down the rocks again.

"Who?" Lisa shouted after her. "Who can´t do what? Abby!"

Lisa sighed. _Damn it! She has such incredibly good eyes_, she thought.

"Abby! Wait!" But Abby was already running towards that object she had so intensely focused upon.

Lisa ran after her but suddenly stopped, when she became aware of what was happening about fifty yards in front of her and she silently and with a queasy feeling watched the scene that was unfolding before her eyes.

Abby had slowed down and now cautiously approached the man who was sitting on a rock. She was afraid, but it was too late now to change her mind and turn away, so she decided it would be wise to not let her fear show up.

"You ..." Abby´s voice broke. She gulped, then started anew: "You … shouldn´t do this," she said lowly, her voice trembling.

The man didn´t show any reaction. He stared down at the object he was slowly, but continuously moving in his hands.

Abby´s nervousness grew as she recognized that maybe the stranger hadn´t heard her. A habit, that her mother often had reprimanded her for, turned up. Even as a kid when being excited, whether from being happy or being afraid, Abby already used to lift herself upon her toes, bouncing up and down, biting her lower lip expectantly or grinning widely - depending on the situation - her black ponytails bouncing up and down in response. And that was exactly what she was doing after she had tried a bit louder:

"Hey, mister? Umm … you know … this could be _v-e-r-y_ dangerous!?"

Slowly the man lifted his head and looked at her.

"You…," Abby started to say, but when her eyes met his, she suddenly stopped bouncing as the words got stuck in her throat.

The man was a bit more than twice her age, in his early thirties. He had ice-blue eyes, but they were blunt and sad and where there should have been the white, they were red.

It took Abby several moments to recognize that she had started to sign instead of speaking and with narrowed eyes the man was alternately and slowly shifting his gaze between her face and her hands that were flying through the air and in addition to the sadness a questioning look settled upon the man´s face.

"Umm … you … you shouldn´t ...," Abby swallowed down the lump that had built in her throat again and before her voice did, her hands formed the sentence she was about to say, only that her hands used some more explicit words.

"You really shouldn´t do that!" Abby finally pointed at his hands.

The stranger slowly looked down at the gun he was holding in his hands. He drew in an audible breath and looked at Abby again. His face was working, his eyes blinking, his brows knitting. He slowly shook his head. Very slowly.

Though he didn´t say a word, Abby could hear´ his whole body expressing only one question: "_Why not_?"

The first raindrops were falling and it got windy.

Abby was wondering why she did what she did next, was wondering why he let her. She was glad that Lisa was still there, some yards away, not daring to move closer but also not leaving.

Abby sat down and crossed her legs.

"My name´s Abby," Abby introduced herself, followed by a awkward silence that was only interrupted by a dark roll of thunder.

"Why...?" Abby finally asked, speaking and signing at the same time.

Or, actually, she was first signing and then translating herself as it helped her deal with her excitement. She knew the man was understanding every single word she said, although he had not even spoken once by now. His eyes gave him away. He turned his head and let his gaze drift over the Bay.

"Okay, mister. You don´t need to talk."

Abby bit her lip.

"But si-ir?" She waited till he looked at her again. "Would you please do me a favor, sir?"

He looked back at her, blinked, and Abby continued: "It´s my birthday today ... and ... if you really want to …," as before, Abby only signed the terrible and terrifying next words. Her heart was pounding with fear, she didn´t know, if she had the right to say what she was about to say. Then again, if she didn´t try, even if this might be bold or rude, she might otherwise feel herself being responsible for this man´s death for the rest of her life. "… then … please don´t do it today, sir. Umm … I´ll consider it … your birthday present for me."

Another awkward silence followed as Abby was awaiting the man´s reaction. The tension inside her was building as nothing happened. Nothing . No outburst of fury, no tirade, not the slightest change in his expression. He just kept looking at her.

It had become very dark by now. Lightning was flashing across the horizon and dark thunder was rolling, threateningly comming near by now. The rain was all of a sudden pouring down on them.

"Damn it!" Abby hissed, jumping at her feet. She considered for a moment. The man hadn´t promised by now, but Abby would by all means make sure that he would not kill himself, not today, not at her birthday!

"Sir!" Abby shouted, trying to beat the clap of thunder that was crashing at that very moment.

A jerk washed over his face and he gave her a questioning look.

"Oh , c´mon! We could _die_ outside here, being hit by a flash!" Abby grabbed his hand and dragged him with her, only shortly pausing to call out to her still not moving friend: "Li-sa! Come on!"

And to Mr. sad-blue-eyes she said: "Sir, could you please ...?" motioning to the gun he still held in his other hand. The man looked at their joined hands and Abby understood, she had to let his hand go, did so and he put the weapon back in it´s holster. He didn´t resist when Abby subsequently took his hand again and he followed the two girls.

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Later on Abby would often ask him why he had let her drag him, why he hadn´t refused to come with her. He then would in return ask her: "Why hadn´t you just left when I didn´t react on you, why did you sit down instead?" Neither one of them had ever answered these questions. Neither one of _them_, though _someone_ had given an answer to _him_ on that very evening. And he had kept it. He knew, he somewhen would have to tell her, he wanted to, but had not yet found the opportunity to.

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_To be continued..._


	7. How We Met  Part II

**Chapter 7 – How**** We**** Met (Part II)**

_... . He didn´t resist when Abby subsequently took his hand again and he followed the two girls._

-

When they finally reached Abby´s home her mother was already worrying about her and Lisa. She was standing in the doorframe, waving her arms, signaling them to rapidly come into the house. They gathered in the hallway, leaving the door open. Gloria wanted to hug Abby and Lisa but thought it inappropriate, because they both were dripping wet. She instead started to assail them with questions, leaving Abby no time to say anything.

"Where have you been ? What has taken you so long? Why didn´t you return earlier? Oh, you are completely soaked, you have to immediately change and get dry clothes on!" She paused for a moment and looked at the stranger, a worried look washing over her face. "Abigail, who on earth is this? Oh my god, did you two girls do something stupid?"

All this of course took place in complete silence, at least not a single word was spoken, only hands quickly moved through the air, accompanied by the sound of pouring rain and rolling thunder.

Abby and Lisa shook her head and stated, – and stated meaning signed and said, as Abby was used to more or less simultaniously translate her mother´s signing whenever a non-signing person was with them and the stranger obviously didn´t know how to sign – they stated that they were okay, that they of course would immediately change their clothing and no, they did not do anything wrong and regarding the stranger, Abby asked if dinner would be enough for one more guest.

Everyone turned to look at the extra-guest who was still standing in the doorframe, watching them in stunned silence.

Abby lifted herself on her tiptoes, bouncing up and down. "Ummm ... mom," she said aloud, facing her mother, her hands moving. "This is Mr. ... ." she abruptly stopped – both, signing and talking - as she became aware that she didn´t know who this man was. After all, this man hadn´t spoken one single word by now. She intently looked at the stranger, tilted her head to one side and smiled at him.

A jerk washed over the man´s face, he blinked and cleared his throat.

"Gibbs," he said in a low, husky voice, "Jethro Gibbs."

Just then a flash of lightning illuminated the hall, immediately followed by a deafening clap of thunder, making the two girls jump with horror.

Recovering from the shock, Abby eventually managed to smile again and her smile widened until she grinned brightly. "Hi, Mr. Gibbs." Abby said. "This is my mom, Gloria."

Then she turned to her mother, signing and, as before, at the same time speaking. "This is Mr. Gibbs." She had difficulties signing or, more precisely, spelling his name but figuered it wasn´t that bad, because she, Abby, knew how to pronounce it and her mother would just use his initials. "We found him down at the Bay. He was about to do something very stupid," and upon the word _stupid_ Abby reproachfully glared at Jethro Gibbs. Then she continued: "and when the thunderstorm came up I had to take him with me to make him keep his promise not to … do it."

For Gloria this was a very awkward situation. She sighed. "Abigail, how many times did I tell you not to bother anyone? I´m sorry, Mr. G."

"Oh mom!" Abby groaned and to Mr. Gibbs she said "Mom says, I did bother you. Did I?"

Jethro Gibbs opened his mouth as if he was about to give an answer but he only shrugged and sighed, thankfully recognizing that Abby´s mom was signaling her she should translate for her again. And Abby did as asked.

"Mr. Gibbs, you are welcome! First, you need to come in. You are completely soaked. You have to get out of these wet clothes as well. I´ll find you something to change ... . That is, is somebody waiting for you?"

Gibbs squeezed his eyes shut with anguish, swallowed hard and slowly shook his head.

"Okay then." Gloria went on being assisted by Abby. "So you are invited for dinner and I´ll prepare the guest-bedroom for you to stay overnight so you won´t have to go out into that nasty weather tonight. The storm is more likely to get much heavier by the hour. Abby, show him the bathroom. You and Lisa, please get changed. Dinner is ready in half an hour." Then Abby´s mother left.

"Mr. Gibbs? Sir?" Abby motioned him to follow. But he was still staring at where Abby´s mother had been standing before. Lisa had already left with Gloria and had gone upstairs to Abby´s room and Abby as well was already shaking in her wet clothes.

She sighed. "Sir!" she said a bit louder, grabbing his hand. "Please! I´m cold!" She dragged him upstairs, mumbling something like "That´s hinky! If you don´t want to talk, I´ll find out what makes you behave like that ... somewhen I will!"

Hinky, by the way, was Abby´s new favorite word. She had picked it up at some tv-show recently and since then she used it all the time.

Upstairs Abby´s mom had already found something for Mr. Gibbs to change and she was just leaving the bathroom. Abby left him with her mom and went to her bedroom.

Jethro Gibbs reached out one hand and slightly touched Mrs. Sciuto´s upper arm, indicating her he wanted to tell her something, though he wasn´t quite sure if she would understand. He reached into his jacket-pocket and revealed his identity card to make her understand he was a Gunnery Sergeant and therefore she would not have to panic when he took his gun and handed it to her.

"I won´t need it tonight," he mumbled, more to himself than to anyone else, because he of course had understood that Gloria was deaf and Abby, who might have served as translator, had just vanished through the door at the end of the corridor. So he just hoped her mother would not have misunderstood him.

He was nevertheless a bit confused because Gloria closed her eyes and nodded in agreement. In fact she did understand him very well. She was very good at lip-reading.

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When Abby entered her room she found Lisa had already changed and was excitingly waiting for her. Before closing it, Abby turned to peek through the slightly open door to have a look at what was happening outside.

Closing the door shut, Abby immediatedly told Lisa what she had just witnessed: "Uh, Lisa, that´s really hinky! He just gave mom his weapon! I thought she would get angry or frightened but she didn´t in the least! And if she did, she hadn´t shown it. Really, really hinky!"

"I wonder why Mr. Gibbs wanted to shoot himself. I mean, that´s what he was about to do, no? That´s pretty stupid." Lisa mused.

The two girls spent the next 20 minutes discussing what that man could have done that he had decided to commit suicide.

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When Abby and Lisa went downstairs they had to remind themselves to stop their conversation because Mr. Gibbs would hear them and they didn´t want to get caught discussing horrible suppositions about him, neither by Mr. Gibbs nor by Abby´s mom, excluding sign-language as potential choice as well.

_As Abby entered the living-room, she had the feeling, that something was different._

In the living-room Jethro Gibbs was standing next to the desk with Abby´s birthday present, looking out of the window, his hands clasped a mug of steaming coffee. Gloria was about to head for the kitchen and motioned to Abby and Lisa to sit down.

The two girls did as asked, furtively watching their guest.

Dinner wasn´t easy for the two girls. They were busy eating sausages and french fries and inbetween telling Gloria and Mr. Gibbs what their afternoon had been like. It of course would have been no problem to eat and sign at the same time, but their guest wasn´t capable of sign language, so they had to speak as well and that really wasn´t easy while eating. But in the end the girls managed this somehow uncommon situation very well, alternately speaking and signing.

Jethro Gibbs followed the conversation, poking away at his meal. He was glad to be distracted from it. He didn´t feel like eating, hadn´t felt like it for some months now. In addition to that, something else was keeping his mind busy. Something Gloria had just told him.

"Dessert, anyone?" Gloria finally wanted to know.

"Sure," Abby and Lisa nodded simultaniously and Abby insisted: "Gibbs, you need to taste mom´s chocolate-cake. It´s the best on earth!" In her enthusiasm she simply called him Gibbs´ and as he never complained about that, she stayed to it.

Gibbs had to smile – weakly and sadly, but it really was a smile - as he thought: _Oh yeah, mummy always does everything best and maybe, only maybe, sometimes daddy does_. And he did understand Gloria´s words that were written on the folded sheet of paper in his pocket.

"You can´t force him," Gloria admonished her daughter looking at her warningly.

"Okay …, if it´s really the best, then I´ll taste it." He had spoken. Very slowly and carefully. And he was still smiling.

His words were followed by a ghostly silence. Abby was taken by such surprise, leaving her open-mouthed, rooted to her chair without the slightest movement, staring at him for several moments. She couldn´t believe it! This man could _smile_. This man had actually _spoken_!

Lightning flashed outside immediately followed by a massive clap of thunder cutting through the silence.

"What?" Jethro Gibbs asked astonished. And then, his scrutinizing gaze focused on Abby´s frozen face and bobbing his head towards her mother he asked in a soft voice: "Don´t you want to translate?"

_And Abby __thought: something had changed._

The cake was delicious as always and Gibbs seemed to enjoy it as well.

After a while Gibbs asked: "How do you sign it´s delicious´?"

Abby showed him and he repeated it in her mother´s direction.

Abby chuckled. This man was really strange.

"It´s called the Gloria-birthday-chocolate-cake. She always makes it at birthdays as a gift. And it´s part of my birthday present as well," Abby explained.

"Besides the microscope?" Gibbs motioned to the microscope that was placed on the writing-desk at the window.

Soon they were having a conversation, in the course of which Abby enthusiastically talked about her interest in mysterious things and that she wanted to become a forensic scientist one day. Gloria in return declared, Abby would rather get herself into hot water one day with all her snooping-about. Abby pouted upon that and the others laughed. Gibbs told them that he might be able to show Abby one day what this job would be like, because he was about to join an Investigative Service and he was sure they had crime labs there. In return Gibbs asked Abby to show him how to sign. It was a fascinating way of communication, he thought and he needed something to keep his hands and mind busy in his sparetime.

_And Abby knew: something__ had changed._

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Yes, something definitely had changed that evening. On that day, Abby´s birthday, that had started as a hot summer´s day, making her change her plans and go down to the Bay instead of snooping around the wreckage-yard, Leroy Jethro Gibbs took new courage to face life again. Although those he loved weren´t there anymore – they were still near. And someone needed him. And it was the beginning of a very close, yet to many people unusual friendship, because they did not know about its background. Since then, whenever she had a question, whenever she needed help, Gibbs had always been there for her. He kept his promise and showed her the labs at when it was still called NIS and he supported her when she went to study Criminology and Forensic Science. He soothed her when her first love abandoned her and when Lisa left to study in Europe. He comforted her when her mother Gloria died. Whereever he was, whereever she was, they were always keeping in touch. Even when he went to Mexico, planning to retire, she was the only one he had given a phone-number to, so she could reach him whenever she wanted or needed to. And Abby had been there for him as well. She could make him talk when others couldn´t. And she did as asked and tought him ASL. He was a fast learner and he learned well. They had a lot of fun talking that way, especially when nobody else should have listened.

Then - one day, one cloudy and windy summer afternoon – it had been very hot for many days – they both were sitting on a rock at the shore of Chesapeake Bay. It happened to be the same place as in 1991. And like the day they had met here, big clouds were gathering at the horizon, threatening to bring up a powerful thunderstorm. It was getting darker and darker by the minute as the clouds were getting nearer and nearer. Dark thunder was rolling in the distance. Neither one had spoken a word for quite some time when he started to sign. His eyes focused on something somewhere across the Bay, his mind wandering back to what had then made him drive around in his car and out of the city of Washington D.C. towards Chesapeake Bay and along its shore to finally lead him here, intending to end his own life that had become worthless to him, to commit suicide by shooting himself ... and instead meet Abby at her 14th birthday. Signing slowly and thoughtfully he told her all this, he told her about his family, told her about his wife Shannon and their daughter Kelly. And he told her about their death… .

_To be continued... _


	8. She Knew

**Chapter 8 – She Knew**

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"Abby?" the far away low and soft voice barely reached her mind. Abby once more ran her fingers over the frame of the photograph. A singel tear rolled down her cheek.

"Abs?" she heard someone softly calling her name and slowly she became aware of her surroundings. She was standing in front of the fireplace in Gibbs´ living-room. She remembered having made him lay down on the couch to rest. She turned around, not bothering to wipe away her tears. Sadly she looked at him.

Gibbs was sitting on the couch. He was feeling much better now and he recognized he must have slept for about three hours at least.

When he had woken up, it had taken him some minutes to remember what had happened and that he had been having dinner with Abby and then he had... . Abby! How could he forget! He heard a low sobbing and - after reminding himself to not make any abrupt movements and therefore slowly turn to look around - he found she was standing in front of the fireplace. Although she had her back turned towards him, he quickly realized what must have made her feeling down.

He called her, softly, to not frighten her and when she didn´t react, he tried again and he finally got through to her and when he saw she was crying he waved her over.

"Come here," he said lowly.

Abby approached him. He took her hand and not letting go signaled her to sit down opposite him on the low wooden table. She still held the photograph in her hands, cautiously, as if she could hurt the two people in it. She didn´t dare look at him as more tears were welling in her eyes. Gibbs put one finger under her chin and slowly and softly made her lift her face so that she finally looked at him.

"They were so beautiful," Abby whispered huskily and her voice broke with tears.

"Shhh... . Don´t cry, Abs," Gibbs said, as he wiped away her tears and leaned in to kiss her on her forehead. It hadn´t been easy for him all those years and it still wasn´t. The worst being the constantly recurring grief of not having been given the chance to properly say good bye´ to Shannon and Kelly. The pain over the loss of his family would never really go away. It would be more or less present, more or less hurtful, but it would always be there. Abby hadn´t known Shannon and Kelly and although Gibbs knew she felt sorry about his loss - always had ever since he had told her years ago - he also knew, she could never take away that pain from him. And he didn´t want her to.

Gibbs could only guess where´ Abby must have been during the last hour or so and his suppositions were confirmed when she self-reproachfully tried to excuse her inappropriate behavior back then, sixteen years ago:

"If I had known back then, believe me, I would not have bothered you! Gloria would have severely scolded me, if she had known ... ." The words died on Abby´s lips as Gibbs placed his index finger across them.

He searched her eyes and when he had finally found them and she didn´t look away, he said: "She knew."

Abby´s eyes widened in shock. She, Abby, hadn´t known. Gloria, her mother, had never told her that she had known about Shannon and Kelly. And by the time Abby had learned about them, Gloria had already been dead. Gibbs could see the confusion in Abby´s face so he tried to explain. And finally Abby understood what had happened that very evening at her 14th birthday, when the man with this sad blue eyes had eventually begun to speak.

"Abs, I would most likely have died, if it hadn´t been for you! A 14 year old girl, that was more stubborn than me and bold enough to approach someone who´s about to shoot himself ... I admire you for that. And you can be very proud of yourself. Gloria was very proud of you. She was afraid of what might have happened to you, but she never showed it."

Abby just watched him, so he went on: "That evening, Gloria wanted to hang up my wet clothes and I took the flask saying _Shannon and Kelly_ out of its pocket. Your mom took me to your living-room and made me sit down at the dining-table. She brought me a mug of hot coffee and sat down, paper and pencil in hand to talk´ with me.

"She asked me right away if Shannon and Kelly were my wife and my daughter and if I was so sad because of them. It was quite a shock to me that she put it that straight and I think I just stared at her. And so did she. Looked at me, sorrowfully, for I don´t know how long until I finally must have nodded and told her that they were dead. Not how or why, just that they had died.

"And Gloria wrote down: You want to die as well?

"When I nodded again, she continued: See, they might not be here anymore, but somehow they are still near. They take care of you and they protect you. They don´t want you to die and Abby showed up just in time to keep you from doing what she quite properly called _something very stupid_. Abby has lost her father about one and a half year ago. It isn´t easy without him and we miss him a lot. But - you know, what keeps us going is what we belief in: People never die, as long as somebody remembers them."

They both sat in silence as Abby took in what Gibbs had just told her. And Gibbs thought about Glorias words again and he had to admit to himself that he had at some point forgotten about their meaning. He had not tried to take his own life ever again, but he also never had cared about it either.

"Gloria never told me," Abby finally said.

"No," Gibbs said in return, and he took the photo and opened the frame. "Because I asked her to not tell you." And while saying: "You had lost your father one and a half year before and your life had just gotten kind of normal again. It would have been too much a shock for you to learn about Shannon and Kelly."

He took the sheet of paper that was stuck behind the photo and handed it to Abby. It was the sheet of paper Abby´s mother had then used to communicate with Gibbs and on it Abby could read everything he had just told her.

Being fully aware that this would bring up more tears, Gibbs had kept his hands on Abbys arms and despite the bruising on his arm did hurt like hell with this movement, he now just pulled her close and held her tight.

The minutes passed and somewhen Abby turned in his embrace, slowly pulled away and he could see some kind of relief on her face when she eventually smiled at him.

"You know what, Gibbs?" she asked. "I´m happy Gloria knew, because I never had the chance to tell her. She was very intelligent."

"Yes, Abs, your mother was a very clever person," Gibbs confirmed and smiled as well.

Then he remembered that before he had gone to take a nap´ at the couch, he had wanted to prepare the last course of their dinner. And as it had been Abby´s birthday, there was still something special to come. Something Gloria had used to do on birthdays. Something Abby continued to do on birthdays. Especially her birthdays and especially for Gibbs. He really enjoyed it.

"And you know what, Abs?" he asked. "Your mom indeed made the _best_ chocolate-cake on earth!"

They both had to laugh at that and Gibbs was happy, Abby did react that way and did not get sadder.

"And her daughter is just as good," Gibbs added and of course wanted to know: "Now, where´s my chocolate-cake?"

He grinned widely and Abby suddenly remembered what she had done earlier that night when she had prepared the dessert and she suddenly wasn´t that sure anymore if it had been a good idea to decorate the chocolate cake.

She bit her lip and looked at him apologetically in advance. She gave view to what was on the dining table behind her. Gibbs eyes widened when he saw the bizarre structure.

There were two plates, each with a huge piece of chocolate cake on it. And what made it appear so odd was this: The huge piece of chocolate cake was surrounded by fried bananas and topped with what obviously were the riceballs.

"What´s that?" he asked in disbelief.

Abby just shrugged, trying hard to not laugh. "Umm..., Abby´s Gloria-birthday-chocolate-cake ... of course!" she replied with conviction.

But Gibbs could hear her giggle and whisper "... chinese style... ."

_The End_

* * *

_**A/N**__ First of all I need to apologize for the delay. I just hadn´t had the time to go over this last chapter earlier._

_Well, this story will end here, hope I didn´t leave too many questions. Thanks for sharing this journey, which I think might be a possible way of how Abby met Gibbs. No? I´m a bit unhappy with Abby´s age here, though it´s only just within range, I think. Hope, you don´t/didn´t mind. Well, I don´t think so, your reviews told me you liked the story. That makes me happy. Thanks!_

_I also have to add another disclaimer: There´s one sentence in this last chapter that I have borrowed from another tv-show. No copyright infringement intended. Maybe some of you remember __"The Incredible Hulk" starring the late and sadly missed Bill Bixby. The sentence is taken from the end of the episode "Married":_ "People never die, as long as somebody remembers them."

_To w__hoever owns this sentence (the writer __Kenneth Johnson?__ ): A very true statement. Thanks a lot!_

_I´m writing on my next story. Many sheets of paper, no files by now__, sorry :-(  
Only thing you can be sure of: It will be about Abby and Gibbs__. Yes, I´ve fallen in love with those two, and as much as I believe (and hope) that there will never be more than friendship between them on the show, I also think anything can happen when it comes to fanfiction!_

_The cake? Um..., it indeed looked a bit ... strange? Funny?__ And I do not recommend eating riceballs that have completely cooled down! _

_BN_


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